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1) Beatmaker 2

$19.99

Beatmaker is by far one of my favorite apps for creating music. The sound quality of the pianos and synths are really excellent and it has all the general midi sounds you would need to make great music. It not only has a keyboard sample, but it also has a built in drum machine with “pads.” My favorite part of Beatmaker 2 and why it makes the top of the list however is the ability to insert FX on individual tracks. It has all the basic effects you need and they have a nice sound. It of course works with midi, which makes it great to use with controllers such as the Korg Nanokey. I love the fact that the iPad will power the nanokey as well. Combined with Beatmaker 2 it’s a very powerful mobile solution without needing extra power adapters or plugs. Beatmaker’s synth has a nice pitch wheel, a double layered keyboard, and the very nice option of “glissando or scroll.”  I love to use the nanokey for my right hand, and the actual iPad for my left bass hand on piano. Beatmaker also has a great feature for learning which overlays the notes on the keys. 

beatmaker2

2) Garageband

$4.99

Yep. You can’t have a list about music and iOS without including garageband. The synths all work with midi, it has great sounds, a standard general midi library and great recording features. It too has it’s own drum kits, bass, guitar, etc. I especially love the “smart beat” feature which allows you to automatically create drum beats based off a grid. The organ is really nice in Garageband as well. It’s rotary feature and skeumorphic design is actually one of my favorite features. Many people dislike skeumorphism, but in this case it really gives you a graphical sense of a leslie. EVERY keyboardist loves a great leslie preset! I also love the distortion dial which allows setting the amount of distortion to the organ and the drawbars. In this case, the skeumorphic design is perfect. The reason I placed Beatmaker 2 over Garageband is simply the fact that it has great effects. At $4.99 it is a gimme for any keyboardist. 

Garageband iOS

3) SampleWiz

$9.99

SampleWiz is by far one of my favortie apps. It was created by Dream Theater’s keyboardist Jordan Rudess. It too works with midi and the iRig. I love the large keys and the “spacey” animations. It’s one of the best sampler’s I’ve found for iOS and it has a ton of options to manipulate the audio frequency. The simplicity of creating sample’s that work with a keyboard is astounding. If you have a good mic connection you can really create your own presets and sounds. Add in the fact that you can “sample a sample” it really let’s you get creative. You can create a riff, sample it, and then re-sample the sampled riff. Make sense? Think Pink Floyd’s “Time” intro. The sample editing feature is really a nice touch as well. It allows very precise editing of your samples so that the starting point can be adjusted. It of course senses the “start” to a wav for you, but if micro adjustments are needed, you can make them. Throw in the fact that Jordan has loaded in some of his custom presets and you have a unique musical experience. It’s definitely one of the best apps for any keyboardist or musician. 

Jordan Rudess’ SampleWiz

4) Korg iPolysix

$29.99

If you like classic analog synth’s, Korg’s iPolysix is the best app you’ll find. It has more dials and synth features than you know what to do with. It’s a bit on the steep side of the price range for an app, but it’s worth it if you love synths. It too works with midi. It has a great mixer feature as well which really allows you to fine tune your synth’s sound. Korg has really put the time into making it sound great with a plethora of options. A unique feature is it’s soundcloud integration. This allows you to easily share your tunes and allow some social integration since it allows users to comment directly on your track. I immediately was drawn in by Korg’s stunning skeumorphic graphics as well. Music is really a category where skeumorphism works. 

Korg’s iPolysix

5) 50 in 1 Piano

$0.99

At $0.99 “50 in 1 Piano” is a great app with a lot of great features. The sound quality is on par with Garageband and Beatmaker. It also has a lot of editing features which allow you to create some unique piano sounds. I chose it over some of the other “synth” type apps just for the fact that it really focuses on piano. It has built-in effects and a lot of options for editing sounds and presets. It has a really nice reverb “rack” that gives you ample control over your reverb. It too works with midi which allows you to use an external keyboard controller. I love the sound quality and the large keys. It also allows a dual layered keyboard through an option. I really like the record and playback feature which allows you to see the notes played as their recorded. In this way it sort of emulates an old player piano. It’s not the best piano app for iOS, but for $0.99 it is one of the best deals. 

50 in 1 Piano

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On a different note, it looks like they’ve been allowing other singers to sing on would as well. Here is a version with James Hetfield from Metallica. 

The post Video: Alice in Chains featuring Phil Anselmo from Pantera and James Hetfield from Metallica singing “Would” appeared first on Hard Wired Media.

Iron maiden’s “Trooper” Beer

Iron Maiden is back ladies and gentleman, and this time they’re bringing their own beer with them. Alongside Robinsons they’ve brewed their own ale. It’s described as:

“a premium British beer inspired by Iron Maiden and handcrafted at Robinsons brewery. Being a real ale enthusiast, vocalist Bruce Dickinson has developed a beer which has true depth of character. Malt flavours and citric notes from a unique blend of Bobec, Goldings and Cascade hops dominate this deep golden ale with a subtle hint of lemon.”

Robinsons features some other beers:

• build a rocket boys!
• Cheshire Black
• Chocolate Tom
• Dizzy Blonde
• GBGB
• Ginger Tom
• Old Tom
• Unicorn

You can check out the video here

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After submitting my design, I ordered the foam, velcro sticky tape, and the Green Screen Banner and Stand. I was happy to finally be able to design a project studio and bring it to life. Once the foam arrived, I decided to start by attaching the 2′ x 2′ panels. I attached them one at a time using Velcro Sticky tape.

Velcro Strips used to adhere Auralex foam

The Velcro Sticky tape was an excellent way to go. I attached the foam by adhering a few pieces on each corner of the squares. The result was a vertical striped design.

Auralex Studio Foam for deadening noise

Next, I attached the bass traps using Velcro as well on each outside corner. I placed an extra piece in the middle outside wall for extra weight support too. The bass traps felt bulkier so I wanted to make sure they were securely attached. It’s also worth noting that if the surface is dusty that it should be wiped first and allowed to dry. Obviously velcro might not work in all instances. If your walls are rough you may have to buy boards and attach the foam to the boards. Then attach the boards to the wall. In this case, I had to attach the panels to drywall, so it was an easy choice.

Attaching Auralex Foam Bass Traps with Velcro

Once I attached all the bass traps to the wall, I really starting feeling good about the design. The bass traps were easily supported by 5 pieces of Velcro and I made sure the panel patterns matched for aesthetics. I applied the bass traps on every wall’s corner. The most important thing in this project is to capture the middle lows to reduce boominess and the high end room noise for clearer sound. I wouldn’t expect total isolation with this design, nor would I expect to be able to block out all outside noise.

Corner Bass Traps adhered by velcro strips

Next, I setup the banner stand and hung the green screen curtain. This gave the room a finalized look and will allow background effects when shooting video. For those who don’t know how a green screen works, it works a lot like Adobe Photoshops magic wand tool. The color range gets selected and then whatever color you pick, you adjust the settings until it becomes transparent. The idea behind it being green is due to the fact that most skin has a magenta tint to it. Therefore green is the complimentary color and offers the most contrast. This will allow the chromakey effect to select only the green parts. 

The Green Screen on Banner Stand

As well, we also added photo lightboxes so that the green screen was well lit. This is important so that the creases and waves in the fabric don’t come across with a hard shadow. The more color variations in the green, the more you have to adjust the chromakey filter in the software. 

That was it! Here is a final quick look around on video!

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I tend to disagree. Apple is not going anywhere. I’ll tell you why. Apple has a core following of designers, audiophiles, and those who are already entrenched in their ecosystem. It’s hard for many to convert from a system that they’re used to. It’s even harder to convert from a system that they’ve sunk hundreds of dollars into, buying tons of apps. But let me get back to my first point. iOS and Apple have a strong core following of designers and audio professionals. I love Apple because I can record, edit, upload music to my server, and convert audio files…all from my phone. I love Apple because there is a ton of external hardware made just for recording music. I love Apple because my midi devices work great with iOS. Namely, I can connect my usb piano/keyboard and use my phone as a sound module. This is an area where android is lacking. The audio apps are generally sub-par (with exception of Auria! and a few others). The largest issue is latency with Android. Apple’s iOS doesn’t seem to have this issue unless running multiple audio apps. 

Another feature that has attracted me to Apple is a new app called Audiobus. It’s an app that links audio apps together for the ability to play, record, loop and bridge audio apps so that you can use multiple apps at a time. It’s basically a large audio chain of apps. Being able to bridge apps together is a huge advantage when it comes to audio. I can then use my synth apps, add on effects from another app, and then dump them into Loopy HD. The more audiobus grows, the better it will become. Just in a few months I’ve seen them add support for a few different apps. Beatmaker being one of them. I also talked to their tech support and they have been in contact with Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater.  He has a set of apps that I love.  I’m very excited to see if Jordan will bring audiobus support in his next updates. 

So for every android fanboy out there. Apple still has some great tricks and apps. They are all stable, and they make me realize why apple is still the king of mobile audio. BUT, I love android too. It’s customization is amazing, and google is constantly making it better. So don’t be a fanboy. Each platform has its advantage and use. I for one like a choice of multiple platforms, and my household is a multiple platform household.

Apple’s audio and iOS

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PC vs MAC

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1. What would the user type in order to get to my site?
2. Will my results be pertinent to their search? (You certainly don’t want them to come to your site only to leave right away BOUNCE RATE affects SEO!)
3. Does my competition use the exact same keywords and title tags?
4. How can I create a search niche that others aren’t considering?

These are great starting questions. Make sure to do your research and install the proper tools on your sites. Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools are becoming more and more integrated every day. When you add new pages to your site, submit them to Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But first and foremost do research on your competition!!

Research

Research is a key part of SEO. You can add tags and titles to every part of your site and still not have good results. It certainly helps to tag your site correctly and isn’t something to overlook, but you HAVE to consider what others are doing in the same space as you. If you have a niche market already, you’ll probably do very well. In fact, I recommend creating your own niche market in order to do well. The perfect example is a client I helped in the heater manufacturing business while working for Leinicke Group. He had a heater that worked indoors and had a very specific usage. It was manufactured for indoor yoga studios. Doing some research, we were able to buy www.HotYogaHeater.com.  When searching for “Hot Yoga Heater” there were hardly any manufacturers in that space. It was mainly Yoga instructors sharing their insights. This was the perfect market considering the boom in Hot Yoga Heater Studios. We prepared title tags, bought the url and specifically created the site around that niche keyword. Alongside the title tags, keywords, and descriptions we made sure he marketed the site using a brochure which linked to the site. He handed the brochures out to studios and within the first week he had already sold one of his heaters through the site. 

I think niche marketing is very important in todays vast world wide web. There are so many people using the web to sell products. You have to find a space that gets you attention. When searching for a domain name, always consider your keywords. If your domain name doesn’t relate to the keyword, consider purchasing a domain that does. You want to do so in a strategic way that supports your site though. DON’T cloak your site and have two identical sites out there. Google will find out eventually and knock your site down in the rankings. I always consider keywords and title tags when thinking about domains. When doing a google search, your domain and title tags are one of the most important elements for defining your keywords. Be careful in what you place there, and which tags you consider. If a certain keyword is being used everywhere by others, consider a niche keyword that others may not have thought about. There are plenty of keywords that are related to your search. Try to find relevant ones that others aren’t utilizing! Doing so will find an avenue that they may have missed. Also, make sure you do use the popular keywords, but don’t focus solely on the popular searches. Find a combination of search words that other sites aren’t using. 

Consider this chart as well which is a basic summary of SEO. 

Seo in a nutshell

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